The conventional automatic paper currency deposit/withdrawal machine performs money withdrawal processing of currency, such as paper currency, from an internal safe by customer's operation and money deposit processing of storing, in the internal safe, paper currency and the like received from a customer. In the money withdrawal processing, paper currency is transferred from the internal safe to a customer section through a paper currency transfer section. In the money deposit processing, paper currency is transferred from the customer section to the internal safe through the paper currency transfer section.
FIGS. 8A and 8B are side views schematically showing a paper currency transfer section of the conventional automatic paper currency deposit/withdrawal machine. FIG. 8A is a side view schematically showing a transfer unit of the paper currency transfer section. A paper currency transfer passage 80 includes transfer rollers 82a, 82b, 83a, and 83b and transfer belts 84a and 84b. The upper transfer belt 84a is stretched between the transfer rollers 82a and 83a and rotated in the arrow direction by a drive source (not shown). As with the upper transfer belt 84a, the lower transfer belt 84b is stretched between the transfer rollers 82b and 83b and rotated in the arrow direction by a drive source (not shown). The upper and lower transfer belts 84a and 84b rotate while interposing paper currency P in between to thereby transfer the paper currency P in the arrow direction.
FIG. 8B is a side view showing delivery between transfer units of the paper currency transfer section. A sending-side paper currency transfer passage 81 shown in FIG. 8B and a receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91 having the same constitution as that of the sending-side paper currency transfer passage 81 are provided respectively on the upstream side and the downstream side in the transfer direction of the paper currency P. A delivery section for delivering the paper currency P is constituted between a transfer unit as the sending-side paper currency transfer passage 81 and a transfer unit as the receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91. Those transfer units and the delivery section are continuously constituted between constitutive units such as the customer section and the internal safe in the automatic paper currency deposit/withdrawal machine to constitute the paper currency transfer section. In the paper currency transfer section, the paper currency P is sent out from the sending-side paper currency transfer passage 81 to be received in the receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91, and, thus, to be transferred between each of the transfer units from the upstream to the downstream in the transfer direction.
The transferred paper currency P has no rigidity and is thin and soft. Since, in particular, paper currency to be received is used under various conditions, many of the paper currencies may be deformed. FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C are explanatory view showing a transfer state of paper currency in the conventional paper currency transfer section. FIG. 9A is an explanatory view showing the paper currency P with a bent and deformed front end P-1. FIG. 9B is an explanatory view showing the paper currency P generally curved including the front end P-1. As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, when the paper currency P is transferred in the arrow direction, there is the paper currency P with the deformed front end P-1 in the transfer direction.
FIG. 9C is a side view showing delivery of the deformed paper currency between the transfer units of the paper currency transfer section. When the deformed paper currency P is transferred, and in particular when the paper currency P is sent out from the sending-side transfer belts 84a and 84b, the constraint to the front end P-1 of the paper currency P disappears between the sending-side paper currency transfer passage 81 and the receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91, and therefore, the state of the front end P-1 becomes unstable. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 9C, the front end P-1 of the paper currency P is abutted against the receiving transfer belt 94a and 92a of the receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91 to be further deformed or buckled, so that the paper currency P cannot be finally transferred to the receiving-side paper currency transfer passage 91 due to jamming of paper currency.
In order to solve the above problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 7-200923 discloses a technique for preventing the paper currency jamming at the paper currency delivery portion. Namely, in JP-A No. 7-200923, a paper currency guide member performing swinging motion is provided at the paper currency delivery portion, and a delivery passage is enlarged or reduced by the swinging motion of the paper currency guide member.